Madame Calment
After 1934 either Jeanne Calment or Yvonne Calment was known as Madame Jeanne Calment. DNA test can help to figure out who was she before 1934. Photo of Madame Calment in Versailles from 1937 This photo was given by Robert Billot. Madame Calment has youthful appearance but all her hair are grey in sharp contrast to hair of both Jeanne and Yvonne from the photo made in early thirties. Whoever became Madame Calment had to either undergo unusually quick hair greying or use hair dye. Photos of Madame Calment in 1940s This photo was given by Claudie Taque, niece of Renée Yvonne Taque, widow of Frédéric Billot-Calment. Claudie dated it May 1943, half a year after death of Fernand Calment. It was probably taken at villa La Miquellete in Paradou where Madame Calment preferred to live, the dog was probably a hunting dog Jack Russel. This photo was labelled as Jeanne Calment in various newspapers found by François Robin-Champigneul, one of which dated it 1945. There are several scans of this photo which could be a photo from ID card of Madame Calment. The pattern of grey hair is similar to the 1943 photo with a dog. Trauma above right eye is visible. Photo of Madame Calment in late forties This photo was given by Robert Billot who was born in 1931. Robert is standing between Madame Calment and Frederic Billot. Robert's mother Jeanne Guillet is sitting between Robert and Frederic. Jeanne Marie Jouve, mother of Joseph Billot, is sitting on the left, she died in 1947. Photos of Madame Calment in late fifties These photos were given by Claudie Taque and shown on France 2 in 2019. Madame Calment is pictured near Joseph Billot. Frederic is standing while Francois Calment is probably sitting on the right. Photo of Madame Calment early sixties This photo was given by Robert Billot. Madame Calment is pictured near Joseph Billot. Censuses In 1936 she is counted in Gambetta Street in Arles. She was born in 1875 and she lives with Fernand Calment, and Louise Gauzargues (born 1894), maid, cook. Joseph Billot-Calment, householder, merchant, having Fernand as employer and Frédéric are counted in a separate apartment, next to hers. In 1954 she lives with Joseph Billot. Jeanne Calment is mentioned as mother. Frédéric Billot (medical doctor) and Renée Billot are counted in a separate apartment, next to hers. In 1962 she lives with Joseph Billot (corrected as V). Frédéric and Renée Billot (dental surgeon) are counted in a separate apartment next to hers. In 1975, she lives by herself. Renée remarried and lives with her husband in a separate apartment next to hers. Rumors Calments had many servants and one of them probably told her granddaughter about the switch. This granddaughter told the story to the director of the nursery home, but she didn't believe it. This granddaughter was probably identified and she is alive but refuses to talk. In 2006 French insurer Jacques de Baudus published an article in his newspaper in which he said that during the dinner a very respectable guest told nine respectable persons that a state insurance company (identified as Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance (CNP), which paid a lifetime annuity to Jeanne Calment for a long time, discovered that it was a daughter of Jeanne Calment who received the rent, but, by agreement with the authorities, it kept the matter secret given how much the character of the “doyenne of the French” had by then become legendary. The details of the story are not clear. According to it, Jeanne Calment signed this contract before her death in 1934 (thus creating a potential motive for the ID switch, see section “Possible motives”). Equally, the insurer could in fact refer to the viager contract which Yvonne Calment signed in 1963. The lifetime annuity was transferred to the insurance company and thus Yvonne Calment could profit from being younger than her official age. An officially sanctioned investigation in the archives of CNP might provide more credibility to this anecdotal evidence. Signature evolution Here are fifteen samples of signatures written by Jeanne Calment or Mme Calment between 1896 and 1992. The signatures show an evolution over time, as expected, but between 1927 and the 1930s a more unnatural change occurs. The initial “J” changes shape at the top from pointed to rounded making the loop more symmetrical, while the final “t” loses its underline tail. While signatures can begin to show changes over periods of only 6 months, changes of this type indicate a difference of writing style that is not normally seen in someone in their 50s.For the next forty years after 1930 the signature again changes only by natural forms of evolution. The 1930s signature which first shows the change is from an identity card. It is possible that Yvonne forged the signature on this card in her mother’s name so that she could use it to validate other forged signatures. Pleural sequelae According to memoires of her Doctor Levraud, JC had pleural sequelae on x-rays which hints that she could have active tuberculosis in the past, though her medical history was free from any disease. Comparisons The image above illustrates how difficult it is to identify Mme Calment by comparison of her pictures with earlier photos of Jeanne and Yvonne. On the right we see two pictures of Mme Calment from around 1943-1945. The colour bands in her hair above the right temple confirm that these are the same person from around the same time. In the top picture she is smiling and off-gaurd and she ressembles the earlier images of Jeanne to the left. The lower picture was a formal pose and here she has a closer resemblance to pictures of Yvonne. Both Yvonne Calment and Madame Calment had horizontal shoulders unlike Jeanne Calment. Madame Calment seems to have different relative sizes of phalanges of 2 and 3 fingers than Jeanne Calment on the switch photo. The image on the left shows Jeanne in first column, rejuvenated Madame Calment in the center and Yvonne in the third column. On the enhanced by Wechat app and transformed/colorized photos all images are given same facial expression and Madame Calment is rejuvenated using FaceApp which does not change facial bones and nose shape. One can see that Madame Calment is very similar to both Jeanne and Yvonne while Yvonne's appearance changes from photo to photo. There exists anecdotal evidence that people confused them in twenties. It is this similarity that could make the switch possible. For other comparisons see Yvonne Calment and Jeanne Calment. DNA tests Contrary to widespread belief, DNA tests of the switch hypothesis are possible without exhumation of the bodies from the family grave. According to thoroughly verified tree (drawn by François Robin-Champigneul), Jeanne Calment and Fernand Calment were double second cousins. This means that Yvonne was the product of in-breeding between her parents with 5th degree consanguinity. This would result in detectable autozygosity in her DNA characterised by long runs of homozygous genes. On average one in 32 allele pairs in her genome would be inherited from the same common ancestor. Normal levels of recombination in autosomes means that these homozygous genes occur in long runs of homozygosity (ROH) which can be detected and counted once the genome has been fully sequenced. For the level of consanguinity between Yvonne’s parents, the actual count should be around 2 to 5% of the genome. DNA tests now in use can distinguish counts as low as 1% from background. To complete the test a number of laboratories should independently measure the FROH (fractional ROH) from SNP data for all the autosomes with a range of threshold sizes e.g. 1Mb and 8Mb. Jeanne had no known common ancestors, so with a single test of Mme Calment’s DNA it should be possible to settle the question of her identity with a high degree of confidence. Other DNA tests could be used such as consanguinity with known living blood relatives of Yvonne who are not blood relatives of Jeanne. In particular, there are several living descendants of Emile Fassin, the former mayor of Arles who married Anne Felix, the sister of Yvonne’s paternal grandmother. Some are second cousins once or twice removed from Yvonne Calment, but have no close blood relation to Jeanne Calment. A test based on complete DNA sequencing can easily distinguish this relationship. This will be largely independent of the autozigosity test which uses lines of ancestry passing through Yvonne’s mother and her paternal grandfather. Measurements of the epigenetic clock and other biomarkers could also be attempted but this may require a control study of other supercentenarians whose verification is also uncertain. Jean-Dausset foundation in Paris holds suitable bio-samples from Mme Calment that could be used for this purpose if legal barriers can be removed. There is also a possibility that stamps on letters sent by Mme Calment to relatives could yield DNA samples. We understand that French law is strict on the use of DNA testing but tests for scientific purposes are permitted. A legal decision may be required to determine if this use of the DNA is possible under the privacy conditions it was given. We urge the gerontological community of France to support organisation for this to be carried out. According to Jeanne Calment’s validator Jean-Marie Robine, she eagerly accepted brain imaging and blood tests to investigate her longevity.